Spirited Rain
by Rythe
Summary: When Chihiro finds herself lost, she turns to the rain for comfort. A memory replays in her dreams of a world she has long since visited. High school, family, a magical spirit world under siege by a strange force. The responsibilities mount up, and Chihir
1. Default Chapter

Spirited Rain ?? ?????   
  
The sequel to Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki   
  
All characters/places/the obvious belong to Ghibli Film Studios, Walt Disney Studios, and Hayao Miyazaki. Major corporations please do not sue me!  
  
When Chihiro finds herself lost, she turns to the rain for comfort. A memory replays in her dreams of a world she has long since visited. High school, family, a magical spirit world under siege by a strange force. The responsibilities mount up, and Chihiro has to answer a calling for help from a place she had almost forgotten existed. A magical, whimsical place were the events of when she was eleven come back to her memories. Now she's sixteen, and the obstacles are harder, stranger, deadlier. Threatening to break her spirit. But in all this chaos who would ever think she'd find love in the rain?  
  
Rain slides down the closed window in a darkened room. A girl very much awake sat in the dark as still as a statue, watching the rain splash against her window. She ran a slender hand over a pearl embedded hair-tie. Her soft brown eyes are downcast, heavily fringed in dark lash. Chihiro sighed slowly, concentrating on the raindrops melting against the cool window pane. Suddenly the window banged open, and rain sprayed the interior. Chihiro, who overreacts to every small thing, tipped her chair back with a startled yelp escaping her. The panic quick to seize her fades abruptly. Rain poured into her open window, the cherry cloth curtains flying outward in the thrashing wind. Chihiro felt the soft carpet through her thin striped pajamas, a twinge of annoyingness overcoming her features in a flash. She up righted the chair with awkward clumsiness, brushing away the drops of rain on her face. The rain continued to pour through her open window, splattering her face and pajamas.  
  
"Ugh, I'm all wet", Chihiro shrieked. She shut her window with a thud and secured the fastening. With an exaggerated sigh, Chihiro leans against the closed window in relief. She glimpsed at the hair-tie firmly held in her hand. Her pale pink nails shine eerily in the darkness. Moonlight drapes through her window, illuminating her willowy figure. Her elbow-length dark brown hair floats gently out at her sides in a nonexistent wind. Finally her heart had resumed it's normal pace.  
  
"I'm such a dummy to lose my cool over a faulty window", Chihiro muttered to herself in disgust. She tilted her head back against the cool window pane.  
  
Help us  
  
The voice was strangely familiar. Light yet deep with an aura of mystery. Chihiro's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.  
  
"It's the wind, it's the wind, it's the wind", she forced through clenched teeth.  
  
Help us Chihiro   
  
"That, that cannot be the wind…"  
  
A pause. Frantic panic and fear ripped through her. She did what all normal sixteen year-old girls would do. She screamed shrilly. The once quiet bedroom erupted with sounds to match a banshee's wail. Wind rattled through her room, blowing the papers off her desk and across the floor. The papers lifted and whirled in the air, the fluttering sounds echoed like a thousand birds. Chihiro screamed louder, and then the wind tore open the faulty window. The very window she was leaning on. Out the window she tumbled backwards, the scream ripped from her throat. The fall made her head spin. Wind and rain slashed against her skin. Soaking and sobbing, her throat stuck by an emotional block, she fell headfirst. The sky blue siding of her house flashed before her eyes as she fell from the second story window.  
  
"I'M GONNA DIE…DAMMIT!!!!", she yelled. Her air was cut off immediately as water filled her mouth. Water? When was there water next to her house? Chihiro plunged deeper into cold water that pressed on either side. It enveloped her in a quiet stillness. A muffled splash echoed unpleasantly in her ears. Her lungs screamed for air. Tired numbness froze her arms and legs. Her world exploded before her eyes into a million white dots as the air was crushed from her lungs. Then all faded towards black. With sudden effort, Chihiro kicked her legs and flapped her arms. In a ridiculous manner of swimming her head bobbed up above the water's surface. She gasped and sputtered as she breathed franticly. Her vision swam. A stone step was only a few feet away. She swam towards it, flinging her arms onto it and holding on for dear life. Taking a deep breath, Chihiro pulled herself slowly out of the water. She laid stock still, her body aching painfully. Mud had splattered her pajamas from sliding up against the stone step. Chihiro was too tired and scared to be aware of that. Something was horribly wrong. Panic, fear, and creeping suspiciousness engulfed her. Including the numbness, pain, and aching, she felt overwhelmed. Tears stung her eyes. She thought sadly to herself that she was supposed to be home, in her bed, and sleeping peacefully. Not thrust into a strange place against her will. This sudden thought stirred her memories. Wasn't it five years ago she had this very same thing happen to her. She was eleven when her family moved out into the rural countryside. Her father had taken a short cut that lead them to an abandoned and very old theme park. She unwillingly followed because of sheer fear to be alone and mixed curiosity. Then her parents had feasted on food meant for spirits, transforming them into pigs, and she had to save them with help from newly found friends. The spirit world. Chihiro knew the past five years that she lived closely to a portal into the spirit world. But you had to enter right before night through a long tunnel and up a grassy hill. Then at night the sea would appear and the restaurants and bath house would open. The spirits would arrive or depart in boatfuls. Chihiro laid still until her head cleared. She sat up slowly, looking around with interest. The rain had stopped, leaving the land damp and glistening. She tilted her head upwards and stared into a sky so black it was as if an inkwell had spilled across the heavens. Across an equally darkened sea a large red structure with a clock on the uppermost tower was lit with hundreds of paper lanterns. Chihiro's eyes widened with curiosity. She stood up, shivering in her thoroughly soaked and muddy pajamas. The mud had covered any incantation that their ever were stripes. A huge and brightly lit ship was pulling up to the stairs, slicing through the water. Chihiro jumped aside to let the dark red plank way drop with a thud. The doors banged open on all three floors, streamers blowing in the wind. But no one got off the wooden steamboat painted bright red. She peered into dark doorways from her post way below on the mossy stone steps. No one entered, no one left. How very strange, Chihiro thought. A cold feeling of understanding gripped her. Something dreadful had happened, she could feel it. Something evil was about. Chihiro stumbled back and hit hard against the steps. The empty doorways seemed to swallow her. She turned and fled with all the strength she had left away from the ghost ship. Up the steps and across well-worn dirt paths. She weaved in between the black transparent tall figures that drifted from restaurant to restaurant. All the bright lights flickered on, the colorfully painted buildings glowing, the ghostly spirits about. They all felt familiar and held a non lasting fear with her. Once she had ran, huffing and puffing, as far from the ship as possible, she came to a bright red bridge illuminated by yellow paper lanterns. A couple of frog people stared hopefully about. One took off his black pointed hat and twisted it anxiously in his slimy warty hands. A strange looking female with a dumpling face and two identical dots inked onto her forehead sighed. She straightened her kimono and looked to the others that oddly resembled her with doe eyes.  
  
"I wonder what is happening to our customers, does no one like to take baths anymore?", she asked with added drama. A frog man huffed into his stringy mustache.   
  
"Who knows? Who cares? Yubaba definitely won't be pleased!", he said, throwing up his arms in disbelief. A kind of mutual nervousness hung in the air. Expectations of guests a plenty would not be filled tonight. The rumble of a train far below greeted Chihiro's ears. She lifted her trembling hands and opened them before her face. Her pearl embedded hair-tie was wrapped around her wrist, shining with drops of moisture. She hadn't started to become transparent. Chihiro flapped her arm in front of her eyes, surprised. With a glance to her hair-tie, then her fully fleshy arm, then back to her hair-tie, realization crept upon her. And so did an exhausted, numbed feeling. The hair-tie, she reasoned, was made to protect her so that was probably why she hadn't started to become ghostly. With a sigh of relief she stepped towards the bridge. She was altogether exhausted. A groan escaped her and she crumpled to a heap at the start of the bridge, curling herself into a tight ball. The frog man with his pointy hat heard the groan and uplifted a paper lantern torch from it's post. He waved the light across the bridge as the others hushed their talking and watched. Chihiro's figure was illuminated with the light from his torch. The frog man jumped back, pointy hat falling from his head. With haste he returned it to his head and pointed to Chihiro.  
  
"A human, a human!", he exclaimed. The frog people and kimono clad women surrounded the fallen girl. The blue curtain embossed in a gold character was swung aside.  
  
"What are you guys up to? We have guests to attend to!", A bossy female called. She strode briskly over and tapped the frog man with the mustache on his shoulder.  
  
"Wha?"  
  
"Move it or lose buster", Lyn threatened, shoving past the frog and into the circle. She brushed a strand of dark hair out off her eyes and peered at the fallen figure. The smell of human drifted to her nostrils. Lyn placed a slightly calloused hand on the corner of the girl's face, gently tilting it upward toward the light. She peered defiantly with coal black eyes. Her jaw dropped in sheer shock. The face was older but still familiar. Lyn pressed her thin lips together, shaking her head to rid the shock.  
  
"It's that kid Chihiro!", Lyn whispered with a glazed expression. The others jumped back as if that had been burned, widening the circle. Chihiro had returned to the spirit world.  
  
A/N: Amusing eh? EPIC LENGTH!! Yes…this will be….EPIC LENGTH!!  
  
Alone on the train, the yellow lights flickered. On the last flicker before darkness someone appeared sitting before you. And then all was dark.  
  
Kamaji: Boiler man  
  
Haku: Kohaku River Nigihayami Kohakunushi  
  
Ziineba: Yubaba's twin sister  
  
No Face: Spirit dude.  
  
Chihiro Ogino: That is Sen/Chihiro/weird crazy girl 


	2. Another Kind of Family

Spirited Rain, by Rythe   
  
Another Kind of Family  
  
A soft crackling issued only feet away. The sounds of light clashing and chimes filled the emptiness. Chihiro stirred on a sleeping pallet. She sat up with a start to find herself sitting in the boiler room of the bath house. Kamaji was away at work, his spidery arms turning cranks and snatching herbs from shelves high above Chihiro's head. She wondered how she had got their. The turning stopped and Kamaji looked over at Chihiro briefly.   
  
"You're back eh kid? Or now ye be a young lady", Kamaji said kindly in his wizened voice. He returned to his work, one hand stroking his mustache. The clanking of coals hitting the belly of the infernal boiler. The tendrils of flame would leap out and descend into ashy embers. Little soot balls squeaked and occasionally bumped into each other with their burdens of coal. A feeling of warmth, dryness, and safety encircled Chihiro. Tears beaded her eyes, setting her eyelashes shining. Kamaji looked back again and smiled under his graying whiskers.  
  
"You know I missed you granddaughter, what brings you back?", he asked curiously.   
  
"I…don't know", Chihiro started. The mud had dried into dirt caked on her pajamas. She brushed some off cautiously. The small door in the wall slid open and Lyn came through. She was tall, lips thin and long to show her always changing expressions. Dark bangs swept to either side of her head, coal eyes that held a mischievous look. She crawled through and sat next to Chihiro, handing her a bowl of steaming white rice and a mug of tea.  
  
"Hey kiddo, why did you come back? Crazy notion? You missed me?", Lyn teased, arching a dark brow.   
  
"I was in my room, and the wind pushed out the window and I landed in that weird sea, I don't know how I got here at all-", Chihiro blurted, coming to a stop when Lyn raised a hand to silence her.  
  
"Eat up, my you've grown, all that baby fat on your cheeks is gone, and it's left you with high looking cheekbones, but no sign of maturity, Sen will you ever grow up?", Lyn spoke with a chuckle of amusement. She brushed a strand of brown hair out of Chihiro's eyes, smiling with concern. Chihiro smiled half-heartedly and ate the food quickly. One sip of the tea and she spit a mouthful out onto Lyn's faded orange Chinese pants. Lyn jumped and wiped with futile effort to remove the liquid that drenched her pant leg.  
  
"Nice going dope", Lyn said with growing sarcasm. Their was a hint of happiness behind her words, and they were visible through the smile that held to her face. Lyn grinned widely.  
  
"I'm so sorry!", Chihiro said worriedly, inclining her head slightly forward.  
  
"What am I going to do with you?", Lyn said with the concern and hinted sarcasm of an older sister. A light of happiness glowed in Chihiro's eyes.  
  
"Let me stay for a visit? Oh please, oh please!", Chihiro said, bowing forward and clasping her hands together. Kamaji chuckled and tapped Chihiro on the shoulder with his elongated arm.  
  
"Yubaba could probably take you back", Kamaji offered. Lyn was taken back.  
  
"Don't sign a contract!", Lyn said sharply. Chihiro became confused and worried. She wanted to visit with her friends so badly. Kamaji stroked his shining bald head with spindly fingers.  
  
"She could stay with Haku, he doesn't live far from her, and she could visit us every day or so", Kamaji said with the essence of one thinking out loud. Chihiro was about to respond when the sudden thought of the empty ship came back to her. Those pitch black doorways, the feeling of helplessness in the air, the strange music. The strange music? Why hadn't she remembered hearing this before? But she hadn't and it was a shock. It was a drum sound, deep and soft. It wasn't music, it was footsteps. Footsteps of darkness. Something must have invaded the Spirit Resort. Chihiro found this to be a foolish notion. The tenseness she felt must had made her imagine the footsteps. She decided not to worry her friends with such a crazy idea. An idea that haunted her. Lyn's voice brought her back to the present.  
  
"HAKU?? Are you nuts? I couldn't stand him while he was here, and besides don't you think it's a bit awkward? Totally against common courtesy", Lyn said ominously, a warning. Kamaji continued turning the crank and falling back into his old work routine.  
  
"He's a nice lad, they're good friends you know", Kamaji said, growling at the seven bath tokens that had dropped before him with a clatter.  
  
"Yeah Lyn what's wrong with that?", Chihiro practically whined. Sixteen year-olds don't whine, her mind told her sharply. She had to act like an adult now since she would be entirely on her own during this visit. She clenched her fists with determination, feeling the adrenaline rise within her. Whatever weird force that brought her here wanted her here for a reason. She might as well stay to find out. That chilling, helpless voice rang in her mind suddenly, calling her name.  
  
"A girl, well a young lady staying with a young man, think about it Chihiro and all, Chihiro could hear the taunting in Lyn's voice as she said this. Chihiro was unaware of the blush that crept up her face. Lyn starting chuckling loudly until she was laughing her head off. Chihiro waved her arms in Lyn's face. Kamaji watched amused.  
  
" LYN!!! I'm friends with Haku…", Chihiro said annoyed. Lyn ruffled Chihiro's hair, not listening to Chihiro at all. Kamaji gave a smile of understanding. He had sensed her friendly love for Haku long ago, in the power of her heart.  
  
"I'm joking Sen, besides you're made of strong stuff, you can take care of yourself", Lyn said kindly, coal eyes sparkling from tears of laughter. Chihiro smiled weakly. Lyn gave a yelp and sat up.  
  
"Chihiro you are in no fit state to go anywhere at the moment, you need a bath and some clothes, the ones you're wearing are dirty and gross", Lyn said with authority. She pulled Chihiro up by the collar.  
  
"Ow ow, I'm coming, see you later Kamaji!", Chihiro called sweetly with a wave before following Lyn through the small wooden panel door. Luckily she did not hit her head as she crawled underneath and the door was slid shut behind her. Lyn and Chihiro's voices were muffled by the panel but they seemed to be arguing in a friendly way.   
  
"My, what a pretty granddaughter Sen is, Lyn is right, she's strong stuff, ahhhh! Can't they be considerate to an old man?", Kamaji muttered to himself as five more bath tokens fell before his eyes with a clatter. 


End file.
